I hate this area.....

Wow you guys make me feel lucky. I never deal with this type of customer. A wash/wax runs between 115-150 for a car, a little more for an SUV. I don't negotiate my prices. It sounds like your just starting out, and doing so, we have a tendency to chase customers. The clients are out there (providing you are good enough), but you have to be patient and not chase them. This lady is not worth your time (which is worth a lot more IMO).
 
There is absolutely no one around here that would pay $115 for a wash and wax......really. I do need to go give Wiley Sanders a card though.....he's got tons of vehicles...and planes...and boats. Anyone ever heard of him? You might have seen the name on a diesel trailer truck.
 
This thread made me think how often we (myself included) judge people and stereo type them. There will always be people that think you are charging too much. Don't take it personal. I do try not to get bothered when someone doesn't spend their money how I think they should. No reason to give them a tongue lashing. For many people there is a price they are willing to pay for a service. For others they may not want as much done as their car needs. The needs of the car may be easy to assess, the customers needs often won't be the same. The car may need full polishing to remove the swirls, the customer may just want you to shine it up a little and doesn't care about the swirls. Others don't seem to care a bit about the paint but want the interior spotless. It may drive us nuts that they are will to pay less and accept less. There will always be people that will do the work for less. A lot of cheap detailer probably use cheap stuff and do poor quality work. Some though do not. I clean a Kompressor for a customer of mine about once a month. On the most recent cleaned I used ONR, a boars hair wheel brush, cobra super plush mf towels (some other towels as well), IG, Megs all season dressing on the tires, stoners trimshine in the wells, wipe down with OCW or AW and if there are any spots on the inside needing cleaning I hit those quickly with a steamer. I vacuum of course, clean the inside of the wheels and wipe out the door jambs. I charge him $25 and spend 30-60 minutes. Every 3-4 months he will get it waxed. Depending on what I think it'll need I use some of the following Optimum Polish, Poli Seal, Wolfgang paint cleanser, Pinnacle Souveran, Natty's Blue, P21S, Sonus Clay. I'll charge him $60 and spend 60-90 minutes. I still do my mobile business 4 days a week but don't live on the money so my hourly rate doesn't matter much now. When it was my family's only income though I was more rigid about my time spent but my price was the same. I've also seen people charging a lot and doing crappy work with crappy products.
 
Well...I'm in school right now and am not working anywhere. It isn't worth it for me to go somewhere and work for $6/hr so I am trying to get the detailing thing going. I'm not going to work for free.
 
todd@bsaw said:
I had a gentleman (that's putting it nicely) drop off a Benz for me this week for a full detail (advertised price is $189.95). I wasn't in the shop when he dropped it off, but I was told that I should call him before I start any work because he wanted to bargain the price. It was a black and swirl E320 that the owner states "it's going to be on screen. I'm a movie producer.

"I saw your price is $190. I'll give you $150."

He went on to explain that he had hundreds of people coming in town for this shoot and he will be referring all of them to me so he wanted a lower price. He also wanted it PERFECT because "it's going to be on screen". I told him that with the condition of the vehicle, it would take 8 to 9 hours to get it PERFECT.

"Fine. I'll give you $200."

With my rates, 8 hours on that vehicle would have been in the $400 range and there was no way in Idaho that I would do it for that price. I charged him regular price and spent an extra hour on it just to make him happy. Which he wasn't. The front was littered with rock chips that he claimed weren't there before.



He picked up his vehicle in a hurry and didn't even wait for me to complete the work order (or even add taxes) and wrote a check for $200 even. The business check was from a marketing company. If I see him back, I'll kindly refer him to another shop.



Sorry for the vent. I get way too many people like this some weeks.
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Hope it doesn't bounce on you:bat
 
Don't let this Kompressor lady get you down. I know a LOT of people like her and they are perpetually un-satisfied. Believe me, she would have found something to gripe about even with you only charging $40. I avoid these types like the plague.
 
Man! 115-150 for a wash and wax. Good god, id never see that here. No one would ever pay that where I live. Id be lucky to see maybe 60?
 
xtremekustomz said:
she told me "There are no scratches in it" .
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if the scratches/swirls weren't already obvious, too bad you didn't have one of these on hand to show her...
800-2200-0-F.gif


don't bother with cheapskates, i see alot of nice cars through the shell automatic scratch-o-matic car wash wash near my house and it literally makes me cringe when i see them come out, but i guess it's good enough for most. not to mention it's only around $5...
 
todd@bsaw said:
I had a gentleman (that's putting it nicely) drop off a Benz for me this week for a full detail (advertised price is $189.95). I wasn't in the shop when he dropped it off, but I was told that I should call him before I start any work because he wanted to bargain the price. It was a black and swirl E320 that the owner states "it's going to be on screen. I'm a movie producer.

"I saw your price is $190. I'll give you $150."

He went on to explain that he had hundreds of people coming in town for this shoot and he will be referring all of them to me so he wanted a lower price. He also wanted it PERFECT because "it's going to be on screen". I told him that with the condition of the vehicle, it would take 8 to 9 hours to get it PERFECT.

"Fine. I'll give you $200."

With my rates, 8 hours on that vehicle would have been in the $400 range and there was no way in Idaho that I would do it for that price. I charged him regular price and spent an extra hour on it just to make him happy. Which he wasn't. The front was littered with rock chips that he claimed weren't there before.



He picked up his vehicle in a hurry and didn't even wait for me to complete the work order (or even add taxes) and wrote a check for $200 even. The business check was from a marketing company. If I see him back, I'll kindly refer him to another shop.



Sorry for the vent. I get way too many people like this some weeks.
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Why would you give him his key if he didn't pay you 400?

So he just ran away?...
 
LangMan37 said:
Hope it doesn't bounce on you:bat
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That was my thought as well... :bat



Edit: And I pulled the vehicle out for him while he wrote the check. He said he had to run to the airport and took off. I did over $600 in sales that day and had other jobs waiting so I was just as happy to get him to leave.
 
DavidJ021 said:
But not that frugle people dont exist here...
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Man, that's not even being frugal! That's just cheap and unknowledgable. She's willing to buy such an expensive Mercedes, but unwilling to pay $40 to get her car cleaned?? Oh, and $40 is more than a reasonable price...
 
PhaRO said:
I charge him $25 and spend 30-60 minutes...[or]... I'll charge him $60 and spend 60-90 minutes.
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That's $25-50/hr. or $40-60/hr.; the low side of those is definitely cheap (I think) for most mobile pro's here.
 
I know my price was more than reasonable. I was even going a few extra steps and not charging for it. As for $60 for a full was/polish/ wax session....it may be a little low. Now I would probably charge something like that if I were just using some XMT 360 on a pc or something. What gets me about my problem is.....the woman actually wanted her floor matts cleaned really well...I mean that could have taken a good 15-20 to do. I figure it would have taken 1 1/2 hours to do the whole car. And by the time your figure up the products that you have used plus the time...it really doesn't add up to much. Hell a body shop charges you $xx/hr for labor and $xx/hr for paint.
 
You have to remember that it is a business and not a hobby if you are detailing for money. To make money in business you charge as much as a given market will take. Pure and simple.



As far as wanting to make every car perfect you have to remember that some/most people don't care as much as you. They won't appriciate the difference basically. Decide what you want to make an hour and stick to it. Doing your absolute best work in the time you are being paid for is the best practice. Then you are happy because you have done your best and your customers are happy because they got what they paid for. Don't rip them off and don't let them rip you off. If your market will only pay $60 for a wash and wax and you want to make $30 an hour then work for 2hrs. Simple math.



And I'm not saying that once your time is up you just stop by any means, I have had 3 jobs this week that went over. I didn't have anything else to do on those days so I spent a little extra time, no biggie. But I also wouldn't polish out a car that is only paying for a wash/wax just because it "needed it". Instead use an AIO product with some cut for example. Save your best "time is no concern" work for those that are willing to pay for it.



One last thing. I don't agree that showing people defects in their paint is a good practice to try and up-sell them. Ask them what they want done, tell them how you can solve that problem for them, and finally, tell them the cost. Nobody wants to be sold anything but everybody wants their problems to be fixed. Tell them how you can fix the problem, follow through with you word, and you'll be golden. If they think it's too much then walk away. Don't negotiate your prices. You are charging what you are charging because you have the experience and knowledge to fix it. If they knew how they would do it themselves. If you don't have enough work then you may be pricing yourself too high for your given market. Either move or charge less. Having a better "sales pitch" rarely does anything but make you seem desperate or slimey. How many times have you walked into a car dealership just waiting and hoping that a salesman will come try to take your money? Probably never. However, how many times have you read about a new product on here that solves a problem, swirls, bonded contaminents, longer work time, better cut, finishes down better, higher gloss, depth, etc. and couldn't wait to go get it? Probably a lot.
 
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